It is usually served in a Malaysian dish, nasi lemak (coconut rice with sambal, egg and cucumber). I notice the nasi lemak sellers fry it separately. I suppose it is easier to store.
It tastes better when fried together as the salty anchovies helps to flavour the peanuts.
The trick for crispy and crunchy peanuts is timing. The peanuts are fried first and it would start making cracking sounds. After the cracking sound stops, add the anchovies. The anchovies will be if more oil is used. You can add in more oil if it is insufficient after the anchovies are added.
It looks quite greasy initially. After pouring it onto a bowl lined with a few kitchen towel to allow the oil to be absorbed, it will be less greasy.
This is a basic recipe. Some cook it Malay style: with sambal or Korean style: with seasoning and gochujang.
Fried Anchovies and Peanuts Recipe/ Kacang Tanah Ikan Bilis Goreng
Ingredients
200g raw peanuts
100g dried anchovies (ikan bilis)
60ml or ¼ cup cooking oil
Method
Heat up cooking oil. Fry raw peanuts until it makes cracking sound. After cracking sound stops, fry anchovies until crispy. Pour it into a bowl lined with kitchen roll and cool it to room temperature. Store it in container.
